Erwin @ Alamance School Library

The mission of the Erwin Montessori School Library is to provide an environment which ensures opportunities for students and staff to become effective users of ideas and information and supports instruction based on the Montessori philosophy and best practices in order to prepare children for college and careers.

Destiny Library Catalog* -- The library catalog is online. The link allows access to catalogs for both schools (just click on the name of the schools to begin searching). Teachers can search the catalog and email book requests to Nancy Cravey.

GCS Follett eBook Shelf* -- Guilford County Schools offers thousands of ebooks through the Follett ebook shelf. Teachers can checkout ebooks for one month. Use this eBook tutorial for help navigating the site.

Discovery Education** -- All teachers and students have Discovery Education accounts. Teachers can set up their class and create assignments in addition to streaming videos for instruction.

Office 365** -- Microsoft offers apps in its Office suite that allows teachers to access their school documents from anywhere. Apps are available when teachers are logged into Webmail.

*Teacher login is your GCS username for both the username and password. New staff accounts for Destiny and the eBook Shelf will be created the first week of school or once email accounts are activated.

**Teacher login is the same as your GCS computer/email login. You must be logged into the computer to access your account at school. New staff accounts for Discovery Education and Office 365 are created by Technology Services when staff email accounts are activated.

There will be a morning open checkout time during which students can visit the library to exchange books. They must have a library card with them during this time. Students without a library card will be sent back to class.

No more than four students should be out of class at one time for morning checkout. Students should always come with a partner. And students should not visit the library more than once during open checkout time. It is preferable that students coming for morning checkout actually need to exchange books, rather than accompanying another student as a partner with no other purpose.

To help students keep track of their library cards, teachers should establish a classroom procedure for what students do when they visit the library during morning checkout. Please include details such as "How do students get permission from the teacher to visit the library", "Where do students pick up their library card when leaving the class", "How long are students expected to be out of class", "How do students/teacher know who is already out of class", and "Where do students put their library card when returning to class".

All students will check out books during weekly library times.
Morning checkout will be available for 2nd-5th grade students after the first week of school. 1st grade teachers and Ms. Cravey will determine if/when students may begin using morning checkout time.

Class checkout times can be scheduled in addition to lesson and morning checkout times.

Primary students will check out one book per week.

1st - 5th grade students may check out 2 books per week.

GCS encourages students to read 600 minutes each month. Students should keep reading logs of non-instructional reading (at-home, at lunch, at recess, at dismissal). Class reading minute totals are collected each month and a school total is reported to the county.

The classroom teacher is responsible for collecting student reading minutes and submitting the class total. Student helpers will assist in recording the monthly totals.

Each month the class with the top reading total on each grade level (primary, lower el, upper el) will be recognized.

Staff members are welcome to schedule meetings and events in the library as long as they do not significantly conflict with student use or instructional time. Please check on availability before scheduling anything.

Additionally, please respect the library as you would want someone to respect your classroom. After events or meetings, be sure to return all furniture to its original location, clear the tables of all materials, and place trash and recycling in the appropriate receptacles. This will help ensure that the space is ready for students.

Copyright law should be observed by all staff when using print, electronic and digital resources for teaching. There are guidelines regarding when works can be used and how much of a work can be used.

This Copyright Guidelines in Brief will answer most questions in regards to instructional use. If you have further questions about copyright compliance, please ask Ms. Cravey.

3rd- 5th grade students are allowed to bring electronic devices to school as long as they are used for reading only.

Before bringing a device, a policy and permission form must be filled out and signed by the parent. The teacher keeps this form on file in case of misuse, loss or damage to the device.

The Electronic Device Policy and Permission Form is on the school website. 3rd-5th grade teachers should plan to send this home at Open House or the first day of school.

Projectors, TVs and document cameras are in classrooms. Equipment stays in the classroom and should not be moved unless by Ms. Cravey or someone from the Tech Services Dept.

Any equipment needing repair needs to be reported to Ms. Cravey. A detailed explanation of the problem is needed when communicating the need for troubleshooting. "My printer/computer/document camera is not working" is not sufficiently detailed information. Sabrina Caldwell can also handle technology issues, like WiFi access or phone problems.

All GCS staff use their GCS login on school computers. GCS has instituted universal logins, so staff must be logged in with their individual usernames and passwords in order to access Webmail/Office 365 and Discovery Education accounts.

There is a generic student login for computers. Students can also login using their individual ID numbers and passwords. Students can only access their Discovery Education accounts when using their individual logins.

Generic student login:

Username-- 361-student

Password-- 361stu

Individual student login:

Username-- ID# (lunch #), ex. 1234567

Password-- birthdate (MMDDYYYY), ex. 01012001

If you are on Facebook, please like the school page!

If you are on Twitter, please follow Erwin!

If you are on Instagram, check out school pictures!

Please promote these communication tools with parents and encourage families to use our school website, www.erwinmontessori.com.

If you want to help administer any of these resources, let Ms. Cravey know!